University  of  California  •  Berkeley 

From  the  Library  of 
HELEN  AND  ALEXANDER  MEIKLEJOHN 


''Art  is  ever  on  the  quest  — 
A  quest  and  a  divine  adventure"1 


LOAN  EXHIBITION 

of  'Paintings  ^   Watercolors^  'Drawings 
Etchings  (S  Sculpture 

BY 

ARTHUR  B.  DAVIES 


Macbeth  (galleries 

450  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 
1918 


Tyfiografihy  and  firesswork  by  The  Merrymount  Press,  Boston 
Photogravures  by  A.  W.  Elson  £3*  Company,  Belmont,  Mass*1* 


PRAISE  OF  UNICORNS 

"The  Lion  and  the  Unicorn  were  fighting  for  the  crown: 
The  Lion  beat  the  Unicorn  all  round  the  town."  .  .  . 

IN  the  golden  book  of  wit  and  wisdom, "Through 
the  Looking-Glass,"  the  Unicorn  rather  disdain- 
fully remarks  that  he  had  believed  children  to  be 
fabulous  monsters.  Alice  smilingly  retorts:  '* Do  you 
know,  I  always  thought  Unicorns  were  fabulous  mon- 
sters, too?  I  never  saw  one  alive  before!"  "Well, 
now  that  we  have  seen  each  other,"  said  the  Uni- 
corn, "if  you  '11  believe  in  me,  I  '11  believe  in  you.  Is 
that  a  bargain?"  "Yes,  if  you  like,"  said  Alice.  No 
such  ambiguous  bargains  are  needed  to  demonstrate 
the  existence  of  Unicorns.  That  is,  not  for  imagina- 
tive people.  A  mythical  monster,  a  heraldic  animal, 
he  figures  in  the  dictionary  as  the  Monoceros,  hab- 
itat, India;  and  he  is  the  biblical  Urus,  sporting  one 
horn,  a  goat  beard,  and  a  lion's  tail.  He  may  be  all 
these  things  for  practical  persons;  no  man  is  a  gen- 
ius to  his  wife.  But  maugre  that  he  is  something  more 
for  dreamers  of  dreams;  though  not  the  Hippogriff, 
with  its  liberating  wings,  volplaning  through  the 
Fourth  Dimension  of  Space ;  nor  yet  is  he  tender  Un- 
dine, spirit  of  fountains,  of  whom  the  Unicorn  asked : 


C   6  H 

"  By  the  waters  of  what  valley  has  jealous  mankind 
hidden  the  source  of  your  secrets  ? "  ( Cousin  germ  an 
to  the  Centaur  of  Maurice  de  Guerin,  he  can  speak 
in  like  cadence. ) 

Alice  with  her  "  dreaming  eyes  of  wonder"  was, 
after  the  manner  of  little  girls,  somewhat  pragmatic. 
She  believed  in  Unicorns  only  when  she  saw  one. 
Yet  we  must  believe  without  such  proof.  Has  not 
the  Book  of  Job  put  this  question :  "  Canst  thou  bind 
the  Unicorn  with  his  band  in  the  furrow?"  As  if  a 
harnessed  Unicorn  would  be  credible.  We  prefer 
placing  the  charming  monster,  with  the  prancing 
tiny  hoofs  of  ivory  ( surely  Chopin  set  him  to  musical 
notation  in  his  capricious  second  Etude  in  F;  Chopin 
who,  if  man  were  soulless,  would  have  endowed  him 
with  one),  in  the  same  category  as  the  Chimera  of 
"  The  Temptation  of  St.  Antony,"  which  thus  taunted 
the  Sphinx:  "I  am  light  and  joyous!  I  offer  to  the 
eyes  of  men  dazzling  perspectives  with  Paradise  in 
the  clouds  above.  ...  I  seek  for  new  perfumes,  for 
vaster  flowers,  for  pleasures  never  felt  before.  .  .  ." 

With  Unicorns  we  feel  the  nostalgia  of  the  infi- 
nite, the  sorcery  of  dolls,  the  salt  of  sex,  the  vertigo 
of  them  that  skirt  the  edge  of  perilous  ravines,  or 


C   7  ] 

straddle  the  rim  of  finer  issues.  He  dwells  in  equivo- 
cal twilights ;  and  he  can  stare  the  sun  out  of  coun- 
tenance. The  enchanting  Unicorn  boasts  no  favoured 
zone.  He  runs  around  the  globe.  He  is  of  all  ages 
and  climes.  He  knows  that  fantastic  land  of  Gautier, 
which  contains  all  the  divine  lost  landscapes  ever 
painted,  and  whose  inhabitants  are  the  lovely  figures 
created  by  art  in  granite,  marble,  or  wood,  on  walls, 
canvas,  or  crystal.  Betimes  he  flashes  by  the  nymph 
in  the  brake,  and  dazzled,  she  sighs  with  desire.  Mal- 
larme  set  him  to  cryptic  harmonies,  and  placed  him 
in  a  dim  rich  forest  ( though  he  called  him  a  faun ;  a 
faun  in  retorsion).  Like  the  apocryphal  Sadhuzag  in 
Flaubert's  cosmical  dram  a  of  dreams,  which  bore  sev- 
enty-four hollow  antlers  from  which  issued  music  of 
ineffable  sweetness, our  Unicorn  sings  ravishing  mel- 
odies for  those  who  possess  the  inner  ear  of  mystics 
and  poets.  When  angered  he  echoes  the  Seven  Thun- 
ders of  the  Apocalypse,  and  we  hear  of  desperate  ru- 
mours of  fire,  flood,  and  disaster.  And  he  haunts  those 
ivory  gates  of  sleep  whence  come  ineffable  dreams  to 
mortals. 

He  has  always  fought  with  the  Lion  for  the  crown, 
and  he  is  always  defeated,  but  invariably  claims  the 


C   8   ] 

victory.  The  crown  is  Art,  and  the  Lion, being  a  real- 
ist born,  is  only  attracted  by  its  glitter,  not  the  sym- 
bol. The  Unicorn, an  idealist,  divines  the  inner  mean- 
ing of  this  precious  fillet  of  gold.  Art  is  the  modern 
philosopher's  stone,  and  the  most  brilliant  jewel  in 
this  much-contested  crown.  Eternal  is  the  conm'61  of 
the  Real  and  the  Ideal ;  Aristotle  and  Plato ;  Alice  and 
the  Unicorn ;  the  practical  and  the  poetic ;  butterflies 
and  geese;  and  rare  roast-beef  versus  the  impossible 
blue  rose.  And  neither  the  Lion  nor  the  Unicorn  has 
yet  fought  the  battle  decisive.  Perhaps  the  day  may 
come  when,  weariness  invading  their  very  bones,  they 
may  realise  that  they  are  as  different  sides  of  the  same 
coveted  shield ;  matter  and  spirit,  the  multitude  and 
the  individual.  Then  unlock  the  ivory  tower,  abolish 
the  tyrannies  of  superannuated  superstitions,  and 
give  the  people  vision,  without  which  they  perish.  The 
divine  rights  of  humanity,  no  longer  of  kingly  cab- 
bages. 

The  dusk  of  the  future  is  washed  with  the  silver 
of  hope.  The  Lion  and  the  Unicorn  in  single  yoke. 
Strength  and  Beauty  should  represent  the  fusion  of 
the  Ideal  and  the  Real.  There  should  be  no  anarchy, 
no  socialism,  no  Brotherhood  or  Sisterhood  of  man- 


c  9 : 

kind,  just  the  millennium  of  sense  and  sentiment. 
What  title  shall  we  give  that  far-away  time,  that 
longed-for  Utopia?  With  Alice  and  the  Faun  we  for- 
get names,  so  let  us  follow  her  method  when  in  doubt, 
and  exclaim :  "  Here  then !  Here  then ! "  Morose  and 
disillusioned  souls  may  cry  aloud:  "Ah!  to  see  be- 
hind us  no  longer,  on  the  Lake  of  Eternity,  the 
implacable  Wake  of  Time!"  nevertheless,  we  must 
believe  in  the  reality  of  our  Unicorn.  He  is  Pan.  He 
is  Puck.  He  is  Shelley.  He  is  Ariel.  He  is  Whim.  He 
is  Irony.  And  he  can  boast  with  Emerson : 

"  I  am  owner  of  the  sphere, 
Of  the  seven  stars  and  the  solar  year, 
Of  Caesar's  hand  and  Plato's  brain, 
Of  Lord  Christ's  heart  and  Shakespeare's  strain." 


From  "Unicorns,"  by  James  Huneker,  with  the  kind  permission  of  the  Au- 
thor and  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


CATALOgUZ 

First  (jallery 

1  Winds  of  Corinth 

2  Violin  Girl 

3  Madonna 

4  At  her  Toilet 

5  The  Throne 

6  Evening  Star 

7  Persian  Panel 

8  Flocks  of  Spring 

9  Little  Mattie 

10  Energia 

11  A  Lake  in  the  Sierras 

12  Clothed  in  Dominion 

13  Yielding  Mists 

14  The  Glade 

15  Hill  to  Hill 

16  Before  Sunrise 

17  Frankincense 

18  Mountains  loved  of  Spring 

19  Homage  to  the  Ocean 

20  Sleep 

21  Children  Dancing 


[    12    ] 

22  Twilight  Pastoral 

23  After  Rain 

24  Rustle  of  Autumn 

25  Ionia 

26  Chanter's  Mound 


Second  (jallery 

27  Spring  Ecstasy 

28  Wing  on  the  Sea 

29  "Do  Reverence  —  for  I  will  breathe  on  thee  with  a  fa- 
vorable breeze,  in  love,  or  on  the  bright- visaged  sea" 

30  Adventure 

31  The  Great  Mother 

32  Mountaineers 

33  Flume  of  Destiny 

34  Out  of  the  Dew 

35  Alchemy 

36  The  Dawning  (Decoration) 

37  Dweller  on  the  Threshold 

38  Achaea,  Greece 

39  The  Wine-Press 

40  Unicorns 

41  Decoration 

42  Line  of  Mountains 

43  Solitude 

44  The  Dancers  (Sketch  for  Decoration) 

45  Freshness  of  the  Wounded 


C    14  ] 

Large  (jallery  (downstairs] 

OILS 

1  Indian  Fantasy 

2  Study 

3  Study 

4  Sketches 

WATERCOLORS 

1  The  Glide 

2  Processional 

3  Study 

DRAWINGS 


C  is  ] 

Small  (jallery  (downstairs] 

ETCHINGS 

1  Leda 

2  Mirror 

3  Summer 

4  Nude  seated  Figure 

5  Figure  Group  (women) 

6  Reclining  Figure 

7  Portrait  J. 

8  Portrait  (small) 

9  Portrait 

10  Head  of  Girl 

11  Group  of  Five  Men 

12  Group  of  Men  (one  seated) 

13  Group  of  Boys 

14  Group  of  Ten  Men 

15  Ishlamish  Group 

16  Man  and  Woman 

17  Struggle 

18  Bathing  Woman  and  Servant 

19  Three  Women  (oval) 

20  Three  Women  (circular) 

21  Three  Women  in  Landscape 


C    16] 

22  Two  Women  in  Landscape 

23  Woman  Running 

24  Two  Women  Standing 

SCULPTURE 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Violin 


her  Toilet 


The  Throne 


^A  Lake  in  the  Sternix 


Clothed  in  'Dominion 


Before  Sunrise 


Sleep 


Children  'Dancing 


Rain 


Rustle  of  ^Autumn 


Ionia 


Spring  Scstasy 


Reverence 


^/fdventure 


The  (jfreat 


Flume  of  Desti 


• 


The  ^Dawning 


'Drveller  on  the  Threshold 


(f 


reece 


.- 


The  Wine -Tress 


Unicorns 


^Decoration 


Line  o 


Solitude 


Tfie  dancers 


^S"v 


Freshness  of  the  Wounded 


Tfie  Glide 


<T)ra-iuing  and  Sculpture 


Etching 


Etching-  and  Sculpture 


Sculpture 


